title: March of the living, a holocaust educational tour: effect on adolescent Jewish identity.
abstract: March of the Living (MOTL) is a worldwide two-week trip for high school seniors to learn about the Holocaust by traveling to sites of concentration/death camps and Jewish historical sites in Poland and Israel. The mission statement of MOTL International states that participants will be able to "bolster their Jewish identity by acquainting them with the rich Jewish heritage in pre-war Eastern Europe." However, this claim has never been studied quantitatively. Therefore, 152 adolescents who participated in MOTL voluntarily completed an initial background questionnaire, a Jewish Identity Survey and a Global Domains Survey pre-MOTL, end-Poland and end-Israel. Results suggest that Jewish identity did not substantially increase overall or from one time period to the next.
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency and Transport Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 4650 Sunset Blvd, Mailstop #113, Los Angeles, CA, 90027, USA, nager@chla.usc.edu.
authors.forename: Alan L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Nager
authors.forename: Phung
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pham
authors.forename: Jeffrey I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003209:Concentration Camps; D005260:Female; D017767:Holocaust / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews / Q000523:psychology*; D007599:Judaism / Q000523:psychology*; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult